It is the last of the death-defying sports.I'm not talking about extreme sports, such as para jumping or free climbing — all risky adventures. I'm talking about Man vs. the Wilderness and a team of sled dogs.The Iditarod.An annual 938 mile (1,510 km) sled dog race held in Alaska in early March, that travels from Anchorage to Nome.Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at least five must be on the towline at the finish line, cover the distance in eight to15 days.What began in 1973 as an event to test the best sled dog mushers and teams has evolved into today's highly competitive event with a prize of $574,000.What makes it death-defying, is the weather — teams often race through blizzards causing whiteout conditions, sub-zero temperatures and gale-force winds which can cause the wind chill to reach −100 °F (−73 °C) — real world encounters and dangers and the fact that you are basically on your own.Hundreds and hundreds of miles from any signs of civilization.Alaska, the mushers say, is always out to get you. It's not just a race, it's about survival. And there is no one there to help you quickly, if you get into trouble. Trouble, such as the giant moose that attacked five-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey and his dog team on the trail on Monday.Seavey, who shot the beast with his pistol, was handed a two-hour penalty over the incident. But not for killing it — for not gutting it properly, according to strict Iditarod rules."These animals are in survival mode," said Matt 'The Musher' Paveglio, a past Iditarod competitor and race insider.Interviewed on After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio, Paveglio detailed the incident, which is not uncommon."They've just almost gotten through an Alaskan winter and they're nothing to be messed with," said Paveglio."A pregnant mother getting ready to drop calves or a big male in the middle of the trail. There's not a whole bunch you can do besides be proficient with a pistol because if they come into your team, the only way to defend yourself, unfortunately, is to go that route.""Not all mushers carry guns. (but) all mushers are going to encounter a moose in their career.".This year, the Iditarod has received a record amount of snow, said Paveglio. Anchorage has so far recorded 130 inches of snowfall.Up into the mountains, the snow is deeper and the best way for these animals to survive is to come down to the trail.A coming together that can end in disaster."There's always this story of a cantankerous moose on the trail," said Paveglio, adding that these massive animals can weigh up to 1,500 pounds or more."The first couple of teams caught up with this moose and these were the leaders in the race and the moose got into Jesse Holmes's team and Jesse Holmes punched it in the nose. Then it swung through another team and then it came into Dallas's team.""It was in his dogs and it was spinning around and stomping and Dallas pulled out his pistol and dispatched it right there and the moose fell into his dog team.""If you can imagine, you have one of the most powerful dog teams on the planet that is just a short ways into a race. Now, Dallas has to control 16 dogs and disembowel a moose."Why the two-hour race penalty?Paveglio assumes that Dallas took 10 or 15 minutes, slit the knife down its belly and slightly disemboweled it, but didn't pull everything out."You've got to get the guts out of the animal. And that means all intestinal organs," he said."In the State of Alaska, we're real particular about want and waste. And if you put a game animal down, you have to do everything you can to preserve the meat."One of his dogs was also stomped on and injured and would later be life-flighted from the next checkpoint on a small Cessna to Anchorage, where it received urgent care and is doing well."It's a big dramatic situation with the sports most-winning musher of all time," said Paveglio. "He is going for a sixth Iditarod win, he is in a huge race, so I imagine he's going to be scrutinized harder than anybody else."One way to avoid danger, says Peveglio, is to run with their headlamps off at night, because visibility into the woods is a bit better with just the moonlight shining.Something he describes as "kind of a neat spiritual kind of zooming experience." One that only mushers speak of, in their far-north tales.Preparation for the Iditarod is also unique — a test of endurance unlike any in the world."You got to be aware. Take the earbuds out, really prepare yourself for the sleep deprivation that's coming in, then just stay aware," says Paveglio."It's every bit of hand-eye coordination and strength and reserve you have just to kind of make sure you and your dogs are fine.".Paveglio was asked how the dogs react to something like a violent moose encounter. Surprisingly, they pretty much mirror their owner's reaction."I think, like anything, dogs, I think they know how to react to their owner, whether to be scared of their owner or to be happy with their owner," he said. "They know if their owner's sad and these dogs are really in tune with what you're doing back there."Paveglio backs Seavey's decision to kill the moose, but also believes the Iditarod ruling was correct."I don't know if it's consistent with what they've done in the past, but we have a new race marshal this year that's particular. The same guy's been the race marshal for the last 20 years and Warren Palfrey, he stepped in and he's going to run a tight ship."Rules is rules, as they say, and keeping a tight ship is likely necessary, because of the risks to life and limb.Some 38 mushers are competing, including Ryan Redington, the grandson of Iditarod co-founder Joe Redington."Physically you start deteriorating," said Paveglio, an ER nurse at Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage."I think people can start getting sick. I mean there's just all sorts of gruesome injuries that have happened on the people cracking shoulders and knees and pretty bad head injuries."Food intake, is also crucial, he says."I think on average, I mean without a doubt, you lose weight. I mean you cannot keep the calories in. Dogs have to get 10,000 calories, I think humans got to get about 4,000 calories in. And if you're constantly driving a sled or it's frozen outside, it's really hard to get that type of calorie.""And then you get to a certain point of exhaustion where you'd have to have a life coach right there saying, 'Matt, eat that granola bar.' I was drinking gravy, I craved fats and I craved protein. So I had biscuits and gravy and I threw the biscuits out and I was just drinking gravy.".All mushers have a GPS tracker and transponder buttoned to their sled, but rescue teams are not close by, said Paveglio."It's just important to know, in Dallas's situation or anyone else's, nobody's coming for you real quick. You are 1,000 miles or at any one point you are hundreds and hundreds of miles.""And the only people that could potentially get there are the Air Force's special ops guys, the guys that come in with Black Hawks and C-130s into the worst storms and they parachute or they rappel in or whatever.""Those are the only guys that could come and get you and Black Hawks have been used in several different extractions on the Iditarod, but yeah, you just don't want to have to hit that button, the transponder button, the safety button."The scariest section, said Paveglio, is yet to come."There's a 90-mile stretch between the abandoned gold town of Cripple to Ruby, Alaska. And there will be a point where it'll be 10 miles of these 10 foot wide, steep drop-off snow drifts, and you're kind of on an old logging road, so to speak.""And then you cut through some rivers and some swamps as well. But it's low visibility, you can crash your sled, you can just get pinned down and be very slow," he said."The hardest part though, where the snow and the accumulation can hit and the wind, are the Yukon River, which is 200 miles of racing and at times five miles wide. So that can be really scary white-out conditions."So why do they do it? Simple, he said."It's a neat sport, death defying in some ways and I think that's what attracts us all to it. You are not in the comforts of the modern world anymore when you get out there. Nobody's coming for you."All eyes are on Seavey, who is chasing a sixth title.Can he do it, in the Max Verstappen sense? Yes, says Paveglio."Dallas Seavey can do it. I mean he can absolutely do it. This is like Tom Brady being down, what? Three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. This can happen. I mean very, very easily.""Dallas's game planning right now. He's got two extra hours to sit there and figure out how to massage and rest and feed and get his dogs in shape.""We will see where people truly are after these 24 hours shake out. In a day or two, we'll really know what the story is."For more information and a live stream, go to Iditarod.com
